Category Archives: writing
Random Awesomeness (part 2019.4)
- Boss Hogg Served in the Korean War as a Counterintelligence Officer & Could Speak 5 Languages [War History Online]
- A Tale Of Two Trophies [The Topps Archives]
- Don’t think Trice, it’s alright and The power of the eraser [SABR’s Baseball Cards Committee]
- 2019 WAR Update [Sports Reference]
- Changing the World Through Love: What I Noticed When I Read 1, 2, 3 John [Radically Christian]
- Toy Story 4 finally gets a full-length trailer, and my heart already hurts [Consequence of Sound]
- 10 Dialogue Errors Writers Should Avoid [Writers Write]
What I’m Reading Right Now: Firefight: The Reckoners, Book Two by Brandon Sanderson.
Purchase the debut album from The End Machine!
(The End Machine features classic-era Dokken members George Lynch, Jeff Pilson, and Mick Brown, with current Warrant vocalist Robert Mason behind the microphone.)
Random Awesomeness (part 2019.3)
- Stuck With Your Story? Why You Keep Hitting Walls and Dead Ends in Your Writing. [A Writer’s Path]
- Cards in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings [Baseball Card Breakdown]
- Tracii Guns And Michael Sweet Join Forces In New ‘Metal’ Project Sunbomb [Blabbermouth]
- Report: Marvel’s Plans for Disney+ Could Include an Animated Take on Its Classic What If? Comics [io9]
- The Difference Between Archetypes, Tropes, and Clichés [Janice Hardy’s Fiction University]
- Decision Fatigue. Writer’s Block. Procrastination. Is There a Link? [Anne R. Allen’s Blog…with Ruth Harris]
- How Writing 3 Pages a Day Can Change Your Productivity [Almost an Author]
What I’m Reading Right Now: Firefight: The Reckoners, Book Two by Brandon Sanderson.
Random Awesomeness (part 2019.2)
- Stan Lee’s Captain Marvel cameo raises a lot of questions [AV News]
- There’s Only One Surviving Blockbuster Left on Planet Earth [Gizmodo]
- More 1979 Alt-Topps [Cards That Never Were]
- I Love The 80’s – Donruss [Dub Mentality]
- Did someone say “contest”? [Baseball Card Breakdown] (JT sez: The Breakdown’s animated baseball card gifs are always spectacular.)
- NaNoWriMo 2018 Bonus Episode, with Mercedes Lackey [Writing Excuses] (JT sez: I know this is an old episode, but it is a really good discussion of writer’s block.)
- Quit Trying to Write [Kill Zone]
What I’m Reading Right Now: Steelheart: The Reckoners, Book One by Brandon Sanderson.
Writing resources: “Write a Novel” course by Crawford Kilian, and the “Writing Excuses” podcast
I have saved on my jump drive several short stories and a few drafts of a few chapters of a novel that I’ve been playing around with for 25 years. 25 years. I’m probably never going to get it done, but I can’t bring myself to delete these drafts. I’m not very good at following through with these things, even though I claim to love writing. Last year, I started off strong in a short story challenge. Write 12 short stories in 12 months, and for the first five months I nailed it. I’m not sure what happened in June. Or July. I’m sure I forgot about it by August. I think a couple of those stories are pretty good, and a couple of them are pretty bad. The bottom line, though, is I didn’t stick with it all year.
I buy books about writing, and for a while I put some of their guidance to work. I used to listen to the Writing Excuses podcast in my car, and get pumped up…until I sit down at the computer. Then I get distracted by Facebook or baseball cards or Twitter or my “real” job. I eventually gave up on listening to the podcast, as I never actually put any of the advice into practice.
Bottom line: I have a problem with motivation.
I want to write, but I just don’t do it. I need to change this. I need to set aside some time to write, to really focus on my novel idea, because until I get this two-and-a-half decade idea down on paper, I’ll never move on from it. It will always be a weight around my neck, a burden that prevents me from getting on with other ideas.
I don’t know if it will help, but I discovered a new resource by Crawford Kilian tonight. Kilian used to blog at “Writing Fiction” frequently, but like most blogs, the new posts started to tail off. A new post appears every once in a while, but it’s just not the same. However, early last year, he did offer a free resource: “Write a Novel,” an 18-lesson course for aspiring writers. While I don’t have the time to sit down and start it right away, I plan to go through the course in the coming months.
I also plan to start listening to the Writing Excuses podcast again. They have some great ideas. Who knows, maybe 2019 will finally be the year my characters come to life on the page they way they live in my mind.
Edgar Allan Poe wantlist
I still haven’t obtained any Edgar Allan Poe cards, but Night Owl’s post today made me aware of two more from 2010 A&G.
If I’m going to try to get these, I suppose I need a wantlist, no? So here it is:
- 1952 Topps “Look ‘n See” #79
- 1992 Starline Americana #140
- 2009 Topps American Heritage #4
- 2009 Topps Mayo “Celebrated Citizens” #CC11
- 2010 Allen & Ginter “World’s Wordsmiths”
- 2011 Allen & Ginter “World’s Most Mysterious Figures”: The Poe Toaster #WMF2
- 2011 Goodwin Champions #183
- 2011 Obak “Princeton Brothers” #62
- 2012 Golden Age #1
- 2013 Garbage Pail Kids “Adam Bombing” #8
There is also a pretty cool Bicycle playing card deck that I may try to add to my currently non-existent collection at some point.
Dear A&G: Where’s Eddie?
The Night Owl posted a list on his blog last night of all the non-baseball subjects in Allen & Ginter since the brand’s 2006 inception. Has it really been around that long? I perused the list and only came up with a handful of cards that I would care to have in my collection: Jack the Ripper (2007), Bram Stoker (2008), George W. Bush (2011), Bobby Knight (2012), and Tommy Lee (2013). I had originally commented on his post that I only found four, but I had overlooked Stoker in my initial reading of the lists. A sixth would have been added if Mr. T was not identified as Clubber Lang in 2015. Hundreds of non-baseball cards in these baseball card sets, but only five that I would actually want.
As many others noted in the comments section, the checklist is getting worse each year. The biggest omission in my eyes is one of the greatest writers in American history, Edgar Allan Poe. You could make the case for other writers in the horror genre, such as H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, and Neil Gaiman, but Poe must come before all others.
Unlike Lovecraft, King, and Gaiman, however, Poe is not without cardboard glory. He was featured in the 1952 Topps “Look ‘n See” set, and the card is fairly affordable depending on condition. There is also the 1992 Starline Americana set, 2009 Topps American Heritage, 2009 Topps Mayo, 2011 Obak (which featured a younger Edgar along with his five brothers), 2011 Goodwin Champions, and 2012 Golden Age. I am almost ashamed to admit that I own none of these issues.
There is one other interesting Edgar Allan Poe card, and perhaps the one that I want above all others: the 2013 Garbage Pail Kids “Adam Bombing” Edgar Allan Poe. I’m a huge fan of GPK, and this card just captures everything there is to love about the brand’s irreverence.
One of these days I will load up my COMC cart with all the Poe cards I can afford. And I may pick up those five A&G non-baseball players I want at the same time.
I love writing
I always have loved writing. But getting published, that’s a whole different feeling. Two years in a row, I have seen my short “flash fiction” pieces published in the Ironology anthologies.
The 2016 edition of Ironology was published earlier this month, and includes two of my original stories: “Gone” and “Murder at the Junkyard.” I also have a short piece in Ironology 2015 called “Red & White Stripes.”
The Iron Writer Challenge is a weekly writing competition designed to sharpen one’s skills. I have not participated this year as other obligations and interests have limited my time in the worlds of my imagination, but it is a fantastic group of creative people. If you are interested in joining, please visit The Iron Writer Challenge website for more details.
Get a Grip on Your Grammar: 250 Writing and Editing Reminders for the Curious or Confused by Kris Spisak (2017)
Get a Grip on Your Grammar:
250 Writing and Editing Reminders for the Curious or Confused
by Kris Spisak
Career Press, 2017
It never ceases to amaze me how many people use “there,” “their,” and “they’re” incorrectly. The abuse of the English language is on full display on social media, on blogs, and even in printed materials. Call me a Grammar Nazi if you must (though I rarely point out another’s wrongness), but I cringe when I read “your special” or “its okay.” In light of the preponderance of grammatical errors in the twenty-first century, Kris Spisak’s Get a Grip on Your Grammar should be a prerequisite to obtaining a Facebook account, let alone writing a report for school or work.
The red banner on the front cover says it all: “A Grammar Book for Those Who Hate Grammar.” The English language can be confusing, and Spisak addresses with clarity and humor 250 common mistakes found in modern writing. There are five sections in the book: “Word Usage,” “Punctuation,” “Idioms,” “Business Writing and Etiquette,” and “Creative Writing and Storytelling.” What is the difference between “accept” and “except”? When should you use single quotation marks as opposed to double quotation marks? Is the proper phrase “for all intents and purposes” or “for all intensive purposes”? Spisak concisely explains all of these and more without going over the reader’s head.
Spisak also addresses the use of slang and jargon in professional writing, as well as several habits a writer should avoid. In the last section of the book, she writes about problems aspiring creative writers often face, and offers tips to edit many of those problems out of their pieces. While reading, I was reminded of several mistakes that I commonly make in my blog posts, church bulletin articles, and (for the moment) unpublished fiction. No doubt, I need to use “Ctrl” + “F” more often and trim my writing.
Get a Grip on Your Grammar is an indispensable resource that should be on every person’s bookshelf, whether that person is writing professionally, blogging, or just jotting thoughtful notes of encouragement to their friends and family.
Word counts
A writer writes, right? If you’re going to be a writer (or better yet, an author), you need to know what you’re getting yourself into. Want to write a novel? You need some idea of how many words you need to put on the page. As John Knowles wrote in A Separate Peace, “There was no harm in taking aim, even if the target was a dream.”
What follows is a list of fairly well-known books and word counts, from least to most. Some are classics, others are more recent productions. Make of it what you will.
| AUTHOR | BOOK | WORDS |
| George Orwell | Animal Farm | 29,060 |
| John Steinbeck | Of Mice and Men | 29,572 |
| Ray Bradbury | Fahrenheit 451 | 46,118 |
| F Scott Fitzgerald | The Great Gatsby | 47,094 |
| John Knowles | A Separate Peace | 56,787 |
| William Golding | Lord of the Flies | 59,900 |
| Nathaniel Hawthorne | The Scarlet Letter | 63,604 |
| Aldous Huxley | Brave New World | 63,766 |
| Alice Walker | The Color Purple | 66,556 |
| John Green | The Fault in Our Stars | 67,203 |
| John Green | Looking for Alaska | 69,023 |
| Mark Twain | The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | 69,066 |
| JK Rowling | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone | 77,508 |
| Ransom Riggs | Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children | 84,898 |
| Rick Riordan | The Lightning Thief | 87,223 |
| George Orwell | Nineteen Eighty-Four | 88,942 |
| Harper Lee | To Kill a Mockingbird | 100,388 |
| Mark Twain | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | 109,571 |
| Henry David Thoreau | Walden | 114,634 |
| Charles Dickens | A Tale of Two Cities | 135,420 |
| Stephen King | Pet Sematary | 141,912 |
| John Steinbeck | The Grapes of Wrath | 169,481 |
| JK Rowling | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows | 198,227 |
| JK Rowling | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | 257,154 |
| Stephen King | It | 437,781 |
Finishing School: The Happy Ending to That Writing Project You Can’t Seem to Get Done by Cary Tennis and Danelle Morton (2017)
Finishing School: The Happy Ending to That Writing Project You Can’t Seem to Get Done
by Cary Tennis and Danelle Morton
Tarcher Perigee, 2017
The title of this book grabbed me immediately. Of course I have a writing project that I can’t seem to get done. I’ve had this idea bouncing around my head since I was a junior in high school, over twenty years ago. I’ve started it several times, and I have finished one version of it, but it didn’t feel right and I have (in my mind) tinkered with it more and more. But here’s the rub: I haven’t touched it in nearly three years. Do I want to finish it? Absolutely. Do I know how to do that? Absolutely not.
This is where Finishing School comes in. Cary Tennis, the creator of the concept, and Danelle Morton, one of his first Finishing School pupils, do not tell you how to write your book, but how to finish it. This isn’t a typical writing book. There is nothing said about characterization or plot or point of view or voice. It’s all about getting it done. Quantity over quality (because quality comes after quantity is achieved). Tennis notes that regret often comes from failure to try. He writes, “It doesn’t hurt so much if you tried and failed. It does not weigh so heavily on the conscience. But failure to try can really haunt you. So try, at least.”
The authors begin by addressing “The Six Emotional Pitfalls” which cause many aspiring writers to simply give up, and how to acknowledge those struggles and move past them as you do your work. Again, Finishing School is not about how to make your writing better, but simply how to finish it. After addressing the emotional obstacles many writers face, Tennis and Morton explain the concept and execution of Finishing School, and how it differs from traditional writing groups. “The issue we tackle is not the is not the quality of the work on any given Tuesday but the habit of writing….Finishing School’s sole focus is the steady application of time to the craft, every week reinforcing the qualities and habits necessary to one day saying that you are done.”
Time management plays a major role in the program. The aspiring writer has to state clear goals and set aside a sufficient amount of time to accomplish them during the week. Some will commit more time than others, but if one is not willing to carve out a slice of the clock for writing, is there really any commitment present? This has been a major problem for me, and Finishing School has encouraged me to take an honest look at both my writing and my desire to write.
Tennis and Morton also teach the reader how to create a Finishing School with other local writers, either one-on-one or a group. The authors finish their book with a section titled, “Finishing,” including a look at John Steinbeck’s self-torture while he wrote the classic, The Grapes of Wrath. Every author, no matter how accomplished, faces similar emotional pitfalls. But one thing is certain: “If finishing this project is something you really want to do, you have to go after it with everything you have within you.”
More of a motivational book than a “how to write” book, Finishing School just might give you the push you need to get back into that long-neglected novel/screenplay/poetry/short story anthology/whatever-project-you-have-not-looked-at-in-years. Before reading Finishing School, I last looked at my draft almost three years ago. Now I am looking at my calendar to determine the best time for me to tackle it again.
